Ethiopian government declares unilateral ceasefire in restive northern region as objectives are achieved: FM spokesperson

Ethiopian government declared a unilateral ceasefire in the country’s northern Tigray region as its objectives had been met, said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, Thursday.

Speaking to journalists, Dina Mufti, the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said the Ethiopian government declared a unilateral ceasefire in Tigray region Monday because the main objectives of the almost eight-months-long “law enforcement operation” have been achieved.

With the freeing of Ethiopian soldiers and the degradation of the former regional ruling party Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) military capabilities, the Ethiopian government declared a unilateral ceasefire, Mufti said.

“The two major objectives of the law enforcement operation have been achieved,” said Mufti. “One was to actually make sure that the Ethiopian soldiers who were detained by the rebels were freed, and they were freed. The other was to take away the military hardware from the rebels.”

The unilateral ceasefire is also said to facilitate humanitarian assistance, peaceful livelihood in the region, as well as agriculture activities amid the approaching rainy season.

Since the early hours of Nov. 4, the Ethiopian government had been undertaking military operations against the TPLF which used to rule Ethiopia’s northernmost Tigray regional state.

Fighting of months in Tigray between the TPLF and the Ethiopian National Defense Forces backed by allied forces has reportedly left thousands of people dead, hundreds of thousands displaced

Xinhua